I never liked the fact that much of my view from my back porch was of the top of my garage. Grateful as I might be for having a roof over my car, the sight of it wasn't exactly refreshing or inspiring (come on, it's a roof), so I decided to do what many of our clients do and create a green roof on an otherwise mundane little bit of space. And not only does it add some visual interest, it also diverts rainwater!
Converting my entire roof would have been costly, so to reduce costs, only the area that was visible to me was reworked. The initial steps consisted of putting the edging, root barriers and drainage in. That step took about 5 solid hours of work. After that, the actual laying of soils and plants finished out the second day. I took care to select plants and ground cover that would weather out the long dry summer days, but would also withstand those violent storms that seem to pop up frequently. Getting everything planted took a bit longer, only because I took some time to plan out a design.
Like many people, having a family and full time career doesn't leave me with a whole lot of extra time, but I felt real good about being able to do the work myself. It's like putting a motor back together or building a nice book shelf - you take a lot of pride in the work you do. . . well, you can leave the green roofs to me* (ha), but seriously, it's important to find time to do the things you love and labor over.
* If you're doing it yourself, please remember to use a certified structural engineer to assess your work site BEFORE you start loading up the roof with heavy material!!
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